Harrington Opera House and Bank Block

An advertisement for the Bank of Harrington. 

The Harrington Opera House and Bank Block building housed one of the original first banks in Harrington; the Bank of Harrington. The building was designed by local construction firm J.R. Burrill and Company and run by local pioneers John F. Green, Marion F. Adams and Albert G Mitchum. The building opened in December of 1904 and housed a bank, a bowling alley, a barber shop, cigar and confectionary shop, The Harrington Citizen newspaper, as well as an upstairs opera house. It cost $25,000 to build the Romanesque brick building and used Harrington made bricks to construct the exterior.

The original street view of the Bank of Harrington. ca. 1898. 

The inside of the Opera House. 

An article published in the Spokane Daily Chronicle describing  the sale of the tellers table being sold to the Old Spaghetti Factory. 

A drawing of a women on the back of a canvas stage set ca. 1906. Courtesy of the Harrington Opera House Society. 

The first show to be produced in the upstairs auditorium was The Lady Minstrels on December 16, 1904 and drew the largest crowd the Opera House would ever see. In the backstage dressing rooms, there are names of past actors/ actresses signed on the walls. Such names on the walls are the Jolly Entertainers, Miss Clara Gooley, the Odessa Dramatic Club and Harrington High School. When the auditorium opened, it boasted 350 seats but shows normally drew over 400 guests at one time. To this day, 8 scenic canvases still exist dating back to 1906 and were created by J.R. Quinn and the Spokane Scenic Studios. One the back of the canvases, there are hand drawn pictures of faces, mainly women and one Native American chief.

A modern view of the Opera House looking directly at center stage. 

The Bank of Harrington remained open until 1969 when it was bought out by Old National Bank and moved a block away to 3^rd and Main. When the lobby was being renovated, the old teller’s counter was sold to the Spokane Old Spaghetti Factory. The old bank lobby became the lobby for the Opera House and the old barber shop now acts as the town’s historical museum.  The building was bought by local retired college professor Douglass Rudkoff for one dollar in 1992(? need to confirm this date). The Harrington Opera House Society was formed on January 11, 1992 and has been maintaining the building ever since. A new staircase was put in 2008 in order to connect the main bank lobby and the upstairs auditorium.